Viktors Pupols was born in Latvia. After World War II, his family fled to Germany, immigrating to the U.S. in 1950 and settling in Washington State in 1953. He beat Robert James Fischer with a Latvian Gambit, one of Pupols' pet openings, in the 1955 U.S. Junior Championship. Pupols took first place in the 1961, 1974, and 1989 Washington State Championship, and shared first in 1978. He won the 1980 Keres Memorial.

A legend in the Pacific Northwest, Pupols inflicted more tournament defeats (seven) on Yasser Seirawan than anyone else. He has also beaten such grandmasters as Pal Benko, Arthur Bisguier, and Walter Shawn Browne. A biography of Pupols, "Viktors Pupols, American Master" by Larry Parr, was published in 1983.

Pobble: A true original. These games hardly do him justice. Notice game 15, a normal opening but it was Victor who invented 11.g4! years before the GM's understood it's strength. He is also an expert on the Latvian defence. There is also has a wonderful little book about him.

Phony Benoni: <azbycx> Whenever two strong players miss an obvious mate in one, I immediately suspect that the score is inaccurate. Here, 22...Qh3 is obviously wrong; not only does it miss the mate in one, it hangs the queen to boot.

I'm willing to bet that Black actually played 22...Qf5, blcoking the mate. Then 23.e4 Qd7 makes sense, as does the rest of the game.

By the way, the National Open was played in Las Vegas on April 11-13, 1997. August 3 would have put it at the US Open, which was held in Kissimmee/Orlando. According to USCF crosstables, Yermolinsky and Pupols did play at the National Open, but not at the US Open.

TheFocus: <Chess rewards merit; it is more fair than life. National origin, age, sex, social status don't matter. Good ideas are rewarded; bad ones punished. There are no hole cards or luck; all assets are even and in plain view. Apples and oranges act in harmony; this skill is transferable to other life pursuits> - Viktors Pupols.

Boomie: Uncle Vik was a very funny guy. We were playing speed chess at the Last Exit and Vik got up saying "I'm going to the rest room to shoot up." I said "Don't forget to wipe off the ceiling."

I'm sure Yaz has a book full of Vikisms. One he told during the recent US Champs was from one of his early Washington championships. The bathroom at the venue had a whiteboard for graffiti. Yaz wrote "All Latvians do not eat giant white mints." Later he noticed that Vik had written "All midgets stand closer to the plate."

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